Vehicles often transport freight, goods, merchandise, personal property, and other large cargo. Often, these vehicles may be arranged to transport such through the use of a towed vehicle, such as for example a trailer. The towing industry has developed a number of methods and apparatuses for securing or engaging the towed vehicle to the towing vehicle, such as to secure a trailer to a pick-up truck. For example, the towed vehicle may be secured to the towing vehicle through use of a preselected towing hitch.
There are many different types of towing hitches in the art that may be attached to the towing vehicle in a variety of ways depending on the type of towed vehicle and towing vehicle involved. Some of the most common types of hitches include gooseneck coupler, fifth wheel hitches, and rear mounted hitches.
Some towed vehicles may be designed to carry heavy loads. When a towed vehicle load is heavy as compared to the weight of the towing vehicle, applying the towed vehicle load generally over or in front of the rear axle of the towing vehicle may create a more desirable towing condition. In addition, such an arrangement may put much of the force of the towed vehicle load onto structural members of the towing vehicle, such as the frame, whereby the hitch ball may be located, for example, in the truck bed.
There are generally two arrangements for securing a towed vehicle to the bed of a towing vehicle—a fifth wheel hitch and a gooseneck coupler. A fifth wheel hitch may be utilized with towed vehicles having a king pin, which may be part of a pin box attached to the towed vehicle. Fifth wheel hitches may generally be attached in a bed of a truck or directly to the frame of the truck in a more permanent manner, whereby tools may generally be required to remove fasteners and other connectors to install or uninstall a fifth wheel hitch to the bed of a towing vehicle.
A gooseneck coupler may be utilized with a towed vehicle having a gooseneck coupler that may generally be coupled to a hitch ball that may be located in the bed of the towing vehicle. The hitch ball may be permanently or removably secured to the frame or bed of the towing vehicle. The towed vehicle coupler may utilize ball socket coupling mechanism that may be sized and shaped to receive the hitch ball. The ball socket coupling mechanism on the towed vehicle may mount over the hitch ball, which may allow for the towed vehicle to pivot behind the towing vehicle.
More specifically, the gooseneck coupler may engage the hitch ball to pivotally couple the towed vehicle to the towing vehicle. The gooseneck coupler to hitch ball connection may allow for relative movement between the towing vehicle and the towed vehicle as the towing vehicle makes turns, traverses uneven or rough terrain, and passes along inclining and declining roadways. The hitch ball member may be removed or lowered to a stowed position below the bed to ensure that the use of the bed is not substantially hindered by the presence of the ball.
Many gooseneck coupler assemblies require attachment to the towed vehicle through welding at least a portion of the gooseneck coupler assembly to the towed vehicle. Welding the gooseneck coupler assembly to the towed vehicle, however, can prove to be difficult and time consuming. Specifically, portions of the towed vehicle or portions of an attachment device may need to be coped so as to appropriately engage the gooseneck coupler assembly. This is especially the case when the towed vehicle is being attached to a tubular portion of the gooseneck coupler assembly. In this situation, portions of the towed vehicle or an attachment portion may need to be coped to appropriately attach to the tubular portion of the gooseneck coupler assembly.
Many current gooseneck coupler assemblies utilize telescoping tubes, i.e., a first member nested within a second member where the second member circumscribes the first member (tube within a tube), which may result in a gooseneck coupler assembly that is generally symmetrical. The telescoping tubes, however, may result in the gooseneck coupler assembly rattling during operation as the tubes will engage each other during operation. Further, the forces applied to gooseneck coupler assembly during operation are not generally symmetrically applied. The generally symmetrical shape of the gooseneck coupler assembly may require that additional structure be added to portions of the gooseneck coupler assembly that do not need such to operate. Moreover, once a gooseneck coupler is attached to a towed vehicle, to remove such it often requires cutting and/or welding of the trailer frame. Accordingly, there is a need for an improved gooseneck coupler assembly that may reasonably remedy any of the above-identified issues.